bits of dinner with thai ribbon rice noodles

 The pad thai kit that we like has been going discontinued, so I saw a flat of pre-cooked packaged 'thai ribbon rice noodles' at the other supermarket and have mentioned a few times 'I'm not sure what I could do with those..'  I bought a flat the other day, to see.

Mark made pulled pork on Sunday (an all day cook) and there were leftovers.  I sauteed some onion in butter in a big pan (not a wok) and added some yellow pepper, and then some leftover pulled pork and some yellow pepper.  I added porkchop seasoning (dragon spice that we make, basically ginger, garlic, some sugar and other things) and stirfried an egg into the mixture.  I put in what was about a half can of rinsed cannellini beans that were leftover in the fridge.  I rinsed, broke up and then drained the rice noodles in a colander.  I put the rice noodles in and stirred them in to the liquid in the pan - but it wasn't enough and they were still a bit dry.  So, I added a half cup of water and some soy sauce (about three caps worth) and more porkchop seasoning in the pan - set to high heat to build up steam, covered it - and then turned it down again.  After a bit, it was ready and the noodles were the right consistency.

There is one more flat of noodles - and I'd like to either make the pad thai 'mock' sauce that I had made a recipe for, or buy a bottle of it from the one store that has it.  That and some red pepper would have made the recipe almost like the kit.

 

In other news : I've been doing French, Czech and Japanese language lessons every day.  I've done a little bit of Catalan here and there.  It has been VERY cold, very much so this morning and all day long - barely hit 60 in the office at work because of how cold it was this weekend trying to keep the heat on 'don't freeze the pipes' but 'don't use unnecessary energy as well'... and it took a good long time trying to warm it back up to regular temps.  It will start out warmer tomorrow, which is good.  I've just been dressing in five layers at a time and drinking a lot of coffee and tea in between tasks.  Hot soup for lunch is great.

 I hit a huge deer with the truck last week and was lucky not to wreck the truck entirely - and the other car is still in the shop.  Somehow, everything continued working even though the deer came across the hood a bit and then under the front right tire and then back off onto the road.  I was lucky that the flailing feet did not hit the windshield - but I saw the horns.  The poor truck looks like it took a massive beating (it did) and has a few more whines and a broken lens and lamp (but the bulb still works) on one side, the grill is entirely gone and the radiator exposed and also the door doesn't open all the way anymore because the deer's legs rammed the fender there and bent it wrong.  The hood doesn't cover everything inside the compartment anymore, but not by much - and it does open and latch firmly.  The mechanic looked it all over for me and said it was driveable (although he was quite impressed, said the little car would have been 'toast' with that impact) and not to do it again *ha*.  I hope when he gets a better chance to look at it all, he can straighten the hood out as right now I'm covering it with a tarp at night if it is going to rain (the battery is right there).

I have gotten propane on the way home almost every other day since it began to get colder - and we are waiting for the car to get back as well because it can carry a bigger propane cylinder than the rig I have made in the truck.  The truck having the kind of  topper it does severely limits where a cylinder can be put securely.  We've gotten something that a man at work recommended to try - a cargo bar - and will see if we can figure out how to make that work - but with it so bitingly cold out (7 degrees this morning) I'm doing good to get to work and get a few things done and get home, make dinner and go to bed to do it again tomorrow.  I leave before sun up in the morning and get back after errands as the sun goes down - will really appreciate Spring for the temps and for the longer daylight hours.

Minetest Repixture on Lunati

 I somehow fell into playing Minetest, after of course being very involved with Minecraft until Esme and I could not play different accounts on the same email - so I gave her my account and stopped playing it altogether.  

Minetest is a generic copycat version - and Mark has said I should try it for a while.  The time came up last night and I got it on my computer.

There are several different versions and I tried a few world builders - and the controls seemed messed up on some.  I downloaded Repixture, and it seemed to work for me better.

 

I think I'll call this Horsehead Bay Farm

I already added potato and cotton in another fence

That being said : Their recipe finder leaves a lot to be guessed at - so some of the key elements to survival were hard to figure out.  Plus, you get hungry - and if you don't eat, you start taking damage.  So - finding and being able to make adequate food supplies was pretty important.

I spawned near a village, which meant I could take some bread from their chests and get some wheat seed from their field - and there were a few apple trees nearby.  So I wasn't starving at first - but the pigs were very tough - bit back hard, and I gave up on that. 

Here is what I figured out on the food, crops and cooking.

All that grass that keeps coming up when you hit it?  Keep it - put it on your crafting screen and make fiber from it.  So many recipes need fiber, and sticks - sticks of course come from the wood blocks becoming planks and the planks becoming sticks.  If you're trying a regular minecraft recipe and it doesn't seem to be working (torch, door, pickaxe, bucket etc.) you probably need fiber.

4 wheat makes a flour, the flour has to be baked in a furnace to make bread.  It doesn't require anything else except burning in a furnace.  The furnace was available in the town - and the recipe finder did have a good way to learn how to make one.  I spent a long time with a bucket (also in the recipe finder) and water trying to figure out how to craft bread.  Nowhere does it say anything about how to do anything with the flour - but that was it, burn it in the furnace, it makes bread. Wheat stacks at 60.  I'm pretty sure it can be used to feed sheep - and it can be blocked to make straw bales.

Growing the wheat is time consuming but possible.  8 wheat grow around a single water square.  If you let it grow to maturity you either get back one wheat and a seed or maybe two seeds.  I haven't seen if animals eat the crop yet - I've put fences around the wheat fields by instinct from the original Minecraft game.

I didn't go after the sheep, but when I tried to dye one with a thistle plant it hit it instead and it didn't attack back like the pig did.  I really don't like killing sheep - much better to keep them for wool -  so I am just waiting to finally find some iron and get a pair of shears.  I've seen how to make rope with some dried grass clumps but haven't found enough of those and the regular grass clumps don't dry in the furnace.

The apples come 4 or 8 from a tree, and chop the tree down, and get more saplings.  Plant all the saplings, they grow if you spend enough time near them - and get more apples.  Apples cannot be cooked.  

Oak trees can grow acorns, just like the other trees grow apples.  Acorns are only one food point a piece, but you can make a good sized forest and the acorns do respawn but they take a good while.  Or you can chop down the forest and replant, and get more acorns that way.  Pigs can be fed acorns. Acorns cannot be cooked, or made into flour.

There are also wild skunks running around.  They don't attack - but I bet if you hit one they do something nasty.  Just an instinct.  There is a 'net' that says it is used to catch small animals - and I think maybe it means the skunk.  Haven't tried it yet.  I haven't seen a single chicken in five different biomes and towns.

There is wild asparagus that looks like a tall seaweed thing on the swamp plains with a yellow flower.  It reminded me a lot of sunflowers in the original Minecraft.  It pops when it has the flower on it to be an asparagus and one or two asparagus seeds.  Asparagus can be cooked and gains a food point in the process.  Asparagus stacks at 60. The asparagus  seeds only grow in swamp dirt.  BTW : wheat seeds do NOT grow in swamp dirt.  I made myself two farms with a long road strung between them.

I still need the roads - built of stone or wood planks - because I still get lost otherwise.  I was sure on my first farm which was just wheat and cotton that I wouldn't get lost - set off in a westward direction, haven't found that place since.  Luckily, I found the asparagus and the clams soon after that or I might have starved before I got another farm going.

 Asparagus Farm in the swamp - which was where I found the pig creeper thing

There was also cotton and cotton seed in the village.  I see you can make cotton bales from it - and grow it just like the wheat and asparagus.  You can't eat the cotton.

I was in the highlands and I found a small white bush flower thing that I popped and it was a potato plant. It yields 2 to 4 potatoes, and you can replant them both in swamp dirt and in regular dirt.  It is pretty easy to plant a whole field of potatoes from just finding one bush.  You can cook potatoes to increase them one health point each - from 3! to 4.

Down by the water edge there were small tan and white spotted squares that were clams.  I popped them and was able to eat them raw.  They cannot be cooked.  Sometimes they yield a pearl when you are popping a lot of them.  They respawn.  Four clams will fill you up from starving.

That's what I've found so far - experimented some with the papyrus plants (like sugar cane, but no food value), growing them, making paper and making reed blocks (which can be cooked to make dried reed blocks) which I think are only meant for a building material.  The paper can be used to make maps and books and labels etc etc..  The reed blocks need 'swamp grass clumps' to be used with the papyrus in the recipe.

Got algae blocks out of the water, and 'airgas' plants - haven't figured out what to do with either of them.  Graphite sheets seem to be used in labels and books etc.  Coal can be made into torches and used to burn things (which you can burn sticks, wood, planks, stairs etc etc. as well).  Thistles and Daisy flowers are probably to use with the paint stuff - but I have to find tin first to try that.  I have only mined a bit down from the surface, and haven't found any monsters but I've been bringing torches with me.  The only monster I found on the surface resembled a saddled pig, green with a red saddle - and it blew up like a creeper.  Yikes!  Don't want to meet that one again.  It chased me, too.  And I haven't found iron yet to make a sword!

So here I am bouncing between two farms - and building roads out from them into new biomes.  I've found birch trees, fir trees, oak trees, 'tree' trees (which give the apple saplings) and seen another kind of tree up on a mountain that I haven't gotten to yet.  I took a boat for a short excursion, but didn't want to get lost.

I've been using the large stone arch method over the roads - at every place I think is significant, and at turns in direction - and so far have went very far... but been able to find my way back.  And it looks like the map is only sticks and paper - so maybe I'll make one soon and see what that looks like.

A pretty lagoon

vegetable recipes

 

Recipe for a vegetable dish Esme ate tonight with me and said it was 'nice' - olive oil and 1/4 cup water bring to boil in a saucepan, add about two handfuls of frozen finely-chopped kale that I bought yesterday, a handful of yellow pepper, and a handful of onion, bring back to boil and saute, add a big dash of biryani masala spice, added about a tablespoon of butter on top of that to activate the spice, then about a half can of rinsed and drained canned cannellini beans (will use the other half tomorrow) and some seasoning salt and bring to a higher temp, stirring until the water reduces to a sauce consistency. Mark had made pork chops and potatoes already and I made this on the side.

 

I had bought these vegetables yesterday while out grocery shopping and said 'it was perhaps a pipe dream' to think about cooking something like this because Esme wouldn't eat it.  Mark said, make it anyway - and put some on her plate.  And then I would have made it, and not let the ingredients sit.  Lately it feels like anything I want to make beyond the norm is just too much work, always on the run, getting propane, getting gas, getting necessity stuff and looking at the vegetables is sort of like 'yea, right.. dreaming'.   But it was good.  And I'm glad she at least said it was nice- didn't see her eat it but she said she did.

other veggie thing I made earlier in the week for us - that I know she did eat:

onion, orange pepper and frozen green peas, with kielbasa sausage and butter, served beside a packet of parmesan sauce noodles that also, I consider usually something she won't eat.  But she looked at the pack and said 'I've had something like this before, maybe'.. so I made those together, while Mark made himself a hamburger.

 

It's been a week, off to bed, post office tomorrow

snow in the yard

 

 

 

 

The snow in the yard yesterday (vs. a non-wintery picture of the same igloo in use during the rest of the year)  Lyffan the cat, and Melody the mostly blind goat.

 

 

 

 

The downstairs dog yard was nearly entirely melted today, although this was yesterday.

I obviously didn't go into the post office yesterday, and some places around here got historic snowfall on Friday.  We were recorded as having about 3.5 inches.  The upper driveway was quite deep, where the snow gathered at the top of the hill, but 3.5 sounds about right for the rest of the yard.  

The snow half-melted here yesterday, and it is supposed to get up to 40 F today. Mark wants to try to go out to town at that point and refill the propane tank. I had a bit of a slump yesterday, very tired, didn't feel like doing much, and napped. Then I went up and checked out the asphalt road (mostly clear), started the truck's engine for five minutes and cleaned the snow off the truck.

I went over all the steps of making oven grilled cheese with Esme again. She said it was a good refresher because in school they still aren't allowed to actually use the stoves for anything - the teacher has to do the stove part for them.  She said things like this 'recipe' would actually be useful, vs. making a cake with replacement materials like Splenda and vegetable shortening - which she would never want to make, or eat, and wasn't allowed to do the baking part on, anyway.  We've made cakes since then, and talked about the importance of ingredients, mixing with a mixer vs. mixing with a fork (still possible, lots more work but don't discount it as a process)  and order of operations (butter and sugar) etc..   She talked about how it is tough for them to learn when they aren't allowed to do things - and I told her I've burned my knuckles on our stove before (and showed her how) and she did all the process on the grilled cheese, using the hot pads and turning the food etc etc..  If she just keeps up practice, it will become second nature to her and she can use whatever facilities are in an apartment or dorm to the best of her advantage.  We were allowed and even expected to do the whole process from ingredients to finished cooked or baked meal, and cleanup - in our home economics class.  Things have changed on that, and it's not helping our kids out.

I've done laundry and dishes today and a little cleaning. Should do some more laundry this afternoon while it's warm because it dips back down with the cold tomorrow. All of our animals are quite upset it is still cold. Mark lit up a chicken coop lamp in the corner of the office and the little elderly cat has been basking under it.

 

I went out around noon, and got propane.  The roads were a bit touchy in a few places - I've got decent hope for tomorrow, though.  The top of the drive was the most worrisome thing I could do something about (as there was no stopping at the highway entrance, where there was another good patch of snow in the shade of some trees).  Then I made an omelet, and convinced myself to take a wide concrete floor squeegee out to the road and push off most of that deep snow.  I took the truck and made a new set of tracks afterwards, while the temperatures were still in the forties (Fahrenheit).  It's going to be freezing temperatures 30-32 degrees at the very most tomorrow... so if that gets a chance to get the road clearer, I was going to try it.  I've done a bit more laundry, towels and blankets.  I've got to turn the laundry taps off again here after the load that is in there finishes.

Lyffan cat, sleeping on one of the other blankets that is on the table by the laundry baskets.

Mark wanted me to take Esme to town with me to get the propane, but I didn't really even want to take ME out there, with the potential for ice and so forth.  He said how is that different than wanting her to cook food and use the oven etc etc that no one lets her experience at school because of 'safety'?   I couldn't think of anything to say to him except 'It's different.  I'll tell you how later, but I'm not taking her out with me today.'  I explained it later to Esme like this : Let's say the ice is like a bear in the yard.  It might be there, but we're probably not going to go fight it unless we have a really good reason to.  I'm definitely not going to take her out there to fight it with me unless there is an actual reason for her to be out there.  The ice isn't a bear.. but there will be a day when she says she WANTS to be there and see how to drive on it, or when she has to - and needs more advice etc.  But I am not going to just take her out when I'm doing something risky - getting propane on an icy day - because it is an 'adventure' and a learning opportunity.  If he wanted to go, that would be different for him - because he is an adult and can choose to go out there with me.  Cooking food in the house is different, yes, there is still inherent risk and she needs to do it to learn more, but it is a constant event and not a 'hey right now it's really risky to drive, let's go do it while we have the chance'.... *sigh* 
 

January Snow

 And our eighteen year marriage anniversary, as well!

We had said we might go have a cheeseburger like we did the first time we went out - but all of this snow is still falling, and the weather service forecasted four to eight inches.  

This was seven am

Sweetie and Loki looking at me asking me why I haven't fixed it.

This was 11:30, going on noon

you can see several inches stacked on top of the porch rails and pipe caps.

 

Esme was home from school.  And Mark told me I had already been stressing over this forecast all week - I should just stay home.  I got up and got ready and looked at it... and decided it was a bit like Lethal Weapon, where Murtaugh says he is too old for this ..... yea.  Last year was very stressful, getting stuck and walking home and not being able to get the truck for a week.    I did call out first thing this morning with it falling fast before dawn - and I might also have to tell the post office I can't get in tomorrow.    The place with my office job has shut down for the day and gotten people home.  I'm sure the postmaster is already having a 'wonderful time' with all the trouble today is causing - I will give him a text or such later on today.

carrying too many bits while running

They're still forecasting snow for us on Friday - and it keeps getting bigger and bigger... the mechanic has not come and gotten the little car to look at the coolant leakage and overheating issue yet. I have been driving the mail truck - and did the bank yesterday after work, the feed store today (it was closed yesterday) and going to have to figure out some way to get a 20 lb propane cylinder tomorrow since the little car is down and Mark will run out sometime over the weekend otherwise. I've termed all of these extra chores on top of work 'quests for humans' to Esme in a conversation recently and boy... there have been a lot of extra 'quests' this week, and the quest time is limited because I get off work at 3:30 and everything closes by 5. And it's not even Friday yet.   

 

I really wish the car was working as well because Esme has to wait at the cold bus stop now with no shelter a half-mile from the house and the temps are in the 20s, and being a teenager she won't wear a coat (I'll just put my hands in my hoodie and use my breath). Most of all, I wish the cold weather would back off and we could have Spring.  Sure.  Yea.  Grandma was saying the birds were telling her it was going to finally be winter the other day.  Work is going well if I can just keep getting there every day - and then there is the post office on Saturday to get to, as well.  GROWL (at weather).  When I got home tonight I tried to clean out the back of the truck because Mark was sure if I just removed some of the junk there I could transport the 40 lb propane cylinder in it. But I could not find a way to strap the 40 lb. one securely, even empty, because of the topper brackets. I succeeded in cleaning out junk and soaking both of the knees of my jeans with questionable oil, mud, battery acid and who knows what else from the back of the truck bed.  

 

Esme took the 150 lbs of feed down to the garage for me using the sled, and had lots of paperwork to sign for her new semester which includes Spanish, Criminal Justice and Chemistry. I was in a 'frantic mood' (batten down the hatches, back off because she's spinning and getting it done but she's obviously a firecracker waiting to blow)  while I made the rest of dinner for Esme and I to go with the leftovers Mark already had started before I got home. I said 'en trousse se quoi' a bit louder than I expected and had Esme come out of her room and ask me if I was really okay.  I told her it felt a bit like I had been a fox chased by hounds all day, and that was the essence of what I had said - a bit like 'now what else in the world is chasing me'.  She said she knew that was a frustrated saying but she didn't know what it really meant.  Once I had eaten something, it was a bit better.  

 

It has been years since we called and tried to find out how much getting a large propane tank in the yard they would come and fill up was -- and the plumbing required to get the line put down near where the heater is in the house.  As I recall the price was very prohibitive for it being the only place we have propane in the house.  But then, it was easier (but not easy) to transport single tanks in the other truck before its engine blew up.  If I have some time on lunch tomorrow I might call them from work.  It will be another cold hectic morning tomorrow.  I've done French and Japanese today.